Modern Malicious Software

Current methods for detection of malicious softwarerely on large databases of signatures forvariations of every known computer virus. When suchvirus infects a system the antivirus reacts byremoving the threat. Such reactive methods leavecomputer systems defenseless against new previouslyunknown attacks. Constant increase in the number ofnew attacks calls for new proactive methods ofdetection of modern computer security threats. Thisbook addresses the complexity issues in the design ofmodern proactive malware detection systems. Adistinct biological immunology theme runs throughoutthis work. Computer viruses are very similar in theirmanifestation to biological parasites. After firstbuilding the basis for understanding how modernmalicious software operates the book then introducesa detailed taxonomy of self-replication behavior inmalware with code samples and basic algorithmsdescribes the application of the self-replication toscript viruses and expands the concept to thedetection of compiled executable malware. The bookcompletes with description of a novel design of anexperimental virtual laboratory for computer andnetwork security analysis and research.